Vocable

In the broadest sense of the word, a vocable is any meaningful sound uttered by people, such as a word or term, that is fixed by their language and culture.[1][2] However, use in the broad sense is archaic. The term is currently used for utterances which are not considered words, such as the English vocables of assent and denial, uh-huh/əˈhʌ/ and uh-uh/ˈʌʔə/, or the vocable of error, oh-oh/ˈʌʔoʊ/.[3]

Such non-lexical vocables are often used in music, for example la la la or dum dee dum, or in magical incantations, such as abra-cadabra. Many Native American songs consist entirely of vocables; this may be due to both phonetic substitution to increase the resonance of the song, and to the trade of songs between nations speaking different languages.[4]

Vocables are common as pause fillers, such as um and er in English, where they have little formal meaning and are rarely purposeful.